More flights to remote areas likely

New Delhi: Indian carriers may be asked to increase connectivity to remote areas of the country in a move that could raise costs for airlines even as it aims to evenly distribute the growth in domestic air traffic, which crossed the 52 million mark last year.
The aviation ministry is planning to expand the scope of existing route dispersal guidelines for airlines that define a dozen key metro routes in the country based on air traffic. Airlines have to ply at least 10% of their total metro flights on routes covering destinations that are not well connected and are less profitable, such as Jammu and Kashmir, the North-East, Lakshadweep, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
“The traffic has increased over the years and there is a case for revising these metro routes. Kochi-Bangalore and Bangalore-Hyderabad are also at par in terms of traffic now,” said a ministry official, who declined to be named. “DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) is being asked to look into it and rework.”
The regulator defines high-traffic metro routes currently as Mumbai-Bangalore, Kolkata-Delhi, Mumbai-Kolkata, Kolkata-Bangalore, Mumbai-Delhi, Kolkata-Chennai, Mumbai-Hyderabad, Delhi-Bangalore, Mumbai-Chennai, Delhi-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi-Chennai.
25/01/11 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Categories: Airports Jan 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2011